Watch where you're running!

Saturday, March 7, approx. 11:45, 400 South in Springville

Suddenly, the sidewalk was flying up at me. Strange, this feeling of no control. What happened?

A sudden stoppage killed my momentum and left me on the ground. My hand was scraped up and my knee was sore. Whoa. Oh my gosh! I tripped. How did that happen? Get up quick! Holy cow someone's going to honk at you. Oh man, that must've been funny to see. Wow, my hand is bloody and throbbing. Dang it. Oh, my favorite running pants are ruined! I burned a hole in my knee. What the heck! Good thing I was wearing that knee support, or my knee would hurt a lot more!

Am I so old and uncoordinated now that I can't run from here to there without falling down? Good grief. I guess I better go home and clean myself up. I hope no one saw that. Well, if they did see me fall, they had a good laugh. "Look at that lady--holy cow!" HAHAHAHAHA. Nah, I gotta run more. Don't be a wuss. Finish your measly three miles.

Thinking back on it, I had so much momentum, I actually kind of rolled up and not quite over into a somersault. I think it was more forward and sideways. What an idiot. Now I wish I DID have a video of that. Because I'm sure it was funny to see.

48 hours later: my hand is healing pretty well with band-aids and various goo. My knee is tender but it will be fine. I found a new sore spot on the outside of my left elbow. My pants are lying in state on my bedroom floor as I mourn them.

A Busy February

Last Sunday we drove up to Farmington to hear Matt Harris give a "previously known as homecoming" talk in church. We visited with the Harris family afterwards. Becky's favorite part was the gerbils. (No, we don't need any.) It was great to see family and support Matt. Tracy, Rachel and Liz sang a beautiful song. I think it was called the Olive Tree. Wow. When we arrived at their house, I had parked in the deep snow to not clog the road. When we left, I wasn't thinking and just hit the gas to get out of the snow. I ended up throwing mud/lawn many many feet. Chunks were all the way to just short of the maroon car. I apologized to Brad who said he had some dirt and he would throw it down with some seed in the spring. Oops. Bad, Dar.

On Feb. 11, we went as a family to the Draper Temple open house. It was a chilly day, so we rushed our photos. But it was a great experience. We look forward to going there later. Kenny wore his new suit and shades and enjoyed thinking he was a CIA agent...or something.

Last, but not least, we celebrated Becky's 10th birthday last week. Her favorite present so far is her hot rollers from grandma, something I know NOTHING about. I stalled as long as I could (four days) and finally caved in today. We rolled some of her hair and well, it was ok. I'm not quitting my day job to become a beautician or anything close. But I think Becky can learn to do this herself soon, hallelujah. I'm missing some serious motherhood genes.

Katie's Baptism

Katie got baptized by her brother Troy last Saturday. It was a fun day for her, and lots of family was there to share the experience with us. Grandma and Grandpa drove down the day before and were happy to be part of the program. Grandpa's talk on the Holy Ghost will not be soon forgotten. My favorite parts:

1."Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost make up the Godhood."

2. "Heavenly Father doesn't like bad people. He only likes good people."

3. "The Holy Ghost is your special friend. You can pray to your friend when you need help."

Yeah, so he will probably just give a prayer at the next baptism...

Katie was called up to the stand on Sunday to be welcomed as the newest member of the ward. She corrected our new bishop when he accidentally called her Becky. Speaking of our bishop, one of my favorite testimonies shared Sunday was from a young girl, probably 9 or 10. She said, "I know Bishop Gervais is a true prophet."

Happy six more weeks of Winter to all!

Our Busy January

Winter has been beautiful this year. We had a few amazing snowstorms in January, and I took the camera out to try to capture some of the frigid beauty. I call this first one Winter Willow.

We got a Juice Man. His name is Kenny.

Katie had a birthday party with several little friends. They went bowling then came over for cake, ice cream and general girl silliness. They ended up in the playhouse and going down the snowy, wet slide. I think they had fun.

Treading Water and Stuff

Seems like we have been so busy lately. The end of January marks three family birthdays in eight days, which means excitement. Katie turned 8 on Friday and we had a small-scale family soiree that night. She REALLY enjoyed her friends party on Saturday. I took her and 6 pals to a bowling alley where they bowled two games and got free drinks. They even got special treats if they got a strike. Well with bumper bowling, strikes were plentiful for some of the gals. Only one cried when she thought she would never get a treat. Guess who... yup, you're right. I reminded her that she had a large Symphony bar at home from the night before and that helped a little. (It's still hidden in my sock drawer so daddy won't break down and eat it.) Any of you had a Tomagatchi? I don't know how to spell it, but it's a little electronic toy that's kind of like a pet. You have to feed it and do other things (by pushing buttons) to help it, or it will die. Here's a tip, don't buy one. Katie is obsessed with it, and now so is Lee Lee.

Katie will be baptized this coming Saturday, and we hope to see a few extended family members there. We had several extra Britts around yesterday as Jim was called to be in our new bishopric. It was one of those things that people had been speculating about for months, since our former bishop's 5 years were up in October. But we didn't think much of it until late December or early January when I got a funny feeling that I couldn't suppress. I shared that with Jim after a week or two, and we thought, whatever happens, we'll do our best. Funny thing, the stake presidency met with me before they met with Jim to tell me about the calling. Poor Jim was in the foyer sweating up a storm. We are excited and humbled about this. I'm not sure what it will mean for my Young Women's calling. I'm sure there's some reorganizing to be done. I will miss sitting by him on Sunday, although half of the time now there's a small girl in between us. I think it will be really good for Jim, and a good challenge for our family. We love the other people that were called and look forward to serving. We all (outgoing and incoming bishoprics and their wives) were part of sacrament meeting yesterday. I thought it was really nice.

Funny story
So last weekend, my in-laws showed up unexpectedly on Friday afternoon. They live 75 minutes away (depending on who's driving). They had gotten a little confused and were, actually, two weeks early for Katie's baptism. So they spent the night with us and we visited Saturday morning for a while. At one point, during a small lull in the conversation, grandma turned to me and said, "I'm sorry we're crazy!" which caught me off guard and was really funny. I told her they could stop by anytime and not to worry. Perhaps I should try this when I do wacky or perhaps regrettable things. "I'm sorry I'm crazy." Enough said.

Sledding Fun

Reading Makes You Smrt

So, we encourage the girls to read for 30 minutes every day. And they are pretty good to do this most of the time. The elementary school has their own reading program, and we try to sign the charts and all that jazz. Certain Christmas books made reading more fun for a week or two. But sometimes it's a chore to get certain girls excited about it.

So yesterday, after my white-knuckle drive home, Becky proudly announced to me that she had a new book from the school library (first day back after the holiday break). She held it behind her back and asked me to guess what it was. She quickly interpreted my mood and then playfully asked, "You know that movie Desperaux that's out?"

I replied, "Yes, the one with the mouse."

And she drew forth her shiny new book, complete with the cartoon mouse on the front. "Oh, good," I mustered. Then I decided to see how difficult a book it might be for her... and in about one second I discovered that the entire book was...


in Spanish!